We welcomed ourselves back to Minnesota a few weeks ago with a big lunch at Grand Szechuan. The estranging effects of three months away are not so easy to shake off, however. Well, now that we’ve eaten dinner at Alma we’re truly back in Minnesota. Note: while the title of this post says “Winter 2024”, we ate there this past weekend, and not even the most pessimistic Minnesotan would say that April is winter. It’s just that this was part of their winter menu cycle; the switch over to spring is about to happen in a week or so, we were told. Well, whatever the season, a meal at Alma is a good thing; and this meal was a very good thing.

We arrived at 7.15 on Friday to find the restaurant bustling and still brightly lit by natural light. Seated by the long window sill—our favourite part of the restaurant—we settled in and perused the menu. As you may know, Alma’s dinner menus are set: you are given a long menu with many dishes listed across three savoury courses plus dessert but you don’t have to make any choices: you get everything that is listed. While we were reading the menu our server brought over small welcoming glasses of bubbles and their signature marinated olives and spiced almonds. The next order of business was to order cocktails. I got the La Opuntia (mezcal, Cynar, tamarind, mole bitters, jalapeño); the missus got the Panda Power (aronia berry, clairin communal, velvet falernum, pandan). She liked hers a lot; I thought mine was just outstanding: one of the best cocktails I’ve had in a while. As I’ve said before, Alma’s cocktail program is serious business, even if their bar staff are not sporting creative facial hair.

And so to the parade of food.

• Marinated olives with orange zest and thyme
• Spiced almonds with brown sugar and pimenton
• Hearth breads with Hope butter and fleur de sel
• Dunbarton Blue English-Style Cheddar from Roelli Cheese Haus with pumpkin seed-peppercorn brittle
• Hiramasa Crudo with ruby grapefruit, smoked roe, garlic toum
• Warm Carrot Flan with French masala, preserved lemon, toasted almonds

DESSERT

• Alpaco Chocolate Torte, Seed chiffon, sarsaparilla anglaise, cocoa crumb

Well, dessert didn’t quite blow us away, which is not to say that there was anything wrong with it. Maybe it’s just that we’ve been eating a lot of chocolate at home of late, what with the younger boy having entered a major baking phase (so far worked out in the form of cookies and brownies from a Dorie Greenspan book). We also very much enjoyed the warm cookies that arrived with the check, in particular the lovely matcha macaroons.

For a look at the menu, the restaurant and what we ate, launch the slideshow below. Scroll down for thoughts on service, for price and to see what’s coming next.

Service was excellent as always. Our server was knowledgeable about the food, described it well and never disappeared on us. I also appreciated her wine recommendation (especially as I was considering a more expensive pour). Price? With the two cocktails, the glass of wine, included 21% service charge and tax, the total came to $314 or $157/head. Certainly not a cheap night out on the town but as close to a good deal as you can find in the fine dining world in the Twin Cities. And, no cap (as we very young people say), Alma is right at the top of that world.

I’m happy to say that we’ll be back at Alma in less than two weeks for a work celebration and will get to eat at least some of that spring menu. My next report from the Twin Cities will not be of a fine dining meal, however. I’m not quite sure yet what it’ll be of, but it’ll almost certainly be a meal eaten in St. Paul next weekend. Before that report goes up next week I’ll have more reports from Delhi and Seoul this week.